Police probe shooting, stabbings in city

Police have a suspect in a weekend shooting that left one man in critical condition, and authorities also are investigating two separate weekend stabbings that sent two men to the hospital.

Kenneth Woods Jr., 22, of West Judson Street was found slumped over in the driver’s seat of his car Sunday afternoon on East Lucius Avenue near Erie Street. There was damage to the car — the rear window was broken out, and there was an exit hole from a bullet in the windshield.

Woods had been shot in the head and could not speak to police. Officers said Woods, who was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center, still was listed in critical condition as of late Monday.

Capt. Rod Foley of the police department said detectives are working the case and do have a suspect in mind. He said no arrest has been made, but detectives are speaking with witnesses and talking to the prosecutor about potential charges.

“No charges are being filed until we talk to more witnesses and talk with the prosecutor. We want to make sure the facts are all in order,” Foley added.

One witness told police the shooter was a man in his 20s in a silver Ford Taurus. He was wearing a striped dress shirt, a dark coat and a furry hat.

The Boardman Police Department also is holding a 2006 Kia Spectra that was reported stolen Sunday, but believed to have been somehow connected to the shooting. The car was found at the intersection of Erie Street and Meadowbrook Lane just before 3 p.m. Sunday.

The owner of the stolen vehicle said the car, which had a bullet hole in the driver’s door and a smashed window, had been stolen from her Boardman home at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Police towed three other vehicles from the scene of the shooting.

Witnesses told police numerous people were fighting at the intersection when someone opened fire. Several cars left after that, but police don’t know if those drivers were involved in the incident and the fighting or just fleeing the gunfire.

Police also are investigating a stabbing that took place Saturday on the South Side in which the victim had to be electronically shocked in order to be taken to the hospital for treatment.

According to police, the unidentified man, who police said was between 35 and 40 years old, walked into a restaurant in the 3500 block of South Avenue just before 2 p.m. bleeding heavily from the head. The man, reports said, would not cooperate with responding officers and only kept saying, “I’m going to kill him.”

According to police reports, the man’s mother arrived at the restaurant and also would not assist officers in identifying her son or getting him to the hospital. The woman, reportedly, told paramedics to remove a brace on her son’s neck being used to treat his head injury.

Reports say the woman stood in the way of paramedics trying to assist the man, and the victim kicked and lashed out at officers and paramedics. He was eventually shocked and taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center for treatment.

Another stabbing on the city’s South Side on Sunday has investigators asking questions.

According to police, a 24-year-old East Florida Avenue man was at a bar in the 3200 block of South Avenue with the mother of one of his children when the mother of another one of his children saw him.

Reports say the second woman stabbed the man in his stomach before getting into a car and driving off.

The man was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center and listed in stable condition late Monday.